Trainings & Highlights

Resources

Welcome to the Western Mass Recovering Learning Community

The Western Mass Recovery Learning Community (RLC) supports healing and empowerment for our broader communities and people who have been impacted by psychiatric diagnosis, trauma, extreme states, homelessness, addiction and other life-interrupting challenges through:

Peer-to-peer support & genuine human relationships

Alternative Healing Practices

Learning Opportunities

Advocacy

Essential to our work is recognizing and undoing systemic injustices such as racism, sexism, transphobia and psychiatric oppression.

The RLC is made up of PEOPLE (not places) and is wherever and however YOU and others from the community may choose to connect. Together, we offer a variety of events, workshops, trainings, advocacy and leadership councils, as well as a peer support line, three resource centers (Springfield, Greenfield, and Holyoke) and a Peer Respite in Northampton. Above all else, we create space for anyone who has a genuine interest in taking part in our community and holding its values to share and find connection, information, ideas and opportunities to make change in their own lives and/or the community around them. Our shared experiences and ‘humanness’ are what unite us. Our stories, collective wisdom and strength are what guide us and our community forward.

The Recovery Learning Community (RLC) is a peer-run project providing supports to individuals with lived experience. One of the founding concepts behind the RLC is that human relationships with people are healing, particularly when those people have similar experiences. And so, above all else, the RLC strives to create forums through which human relationships, community and a regional network of supports can develop. On a day-to-day basis, that effort may take the form of a community meeting, a support group, a computer workshop and/or simply offering a safe space where people can communicate with others or simply be. The RLC also acts a clearing house for information about other resources in the community.

The Western Massachusetts Recovery Learning Community is funded, in part, by the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, the United Way of Franklin County, and a variety of private foundations and donations.

The "Writing Towards Recovery" group is guided by the framework that we can all benefit from writing as form of therapeutic expression. Each group starts with a 10 minute free-write where individuals are encouraged to write non-stop about anything and everything that comes to mind, as a sort of cleansing ritual that readies the participant for the challenges ahead.

The rest of the group is a combination of focused writing prompts and sharing among the group. The prompts range from creative, to non-fiction, from poetry to group-thinks. All participants are encouraged to share their writing, though no one will be forced if they feel uncomfortable. While it's not mandatory to share each time, the group is a safe space where sharing is an integral part of the process.

The ultimate goal of the group is to create an environment where participants feel motivated to write, journal, and share their words outside of the group and within the space of their own lives.

for the RLC’s Greenfield Center at the end of December,when the fifth cycle of the Greenfield Community Development Block grant the RLC has shared with Recover Project comes to an end. This funding has gone primarily toward supporting our space at 74 Federal Street, as well as some additional hours for team members. (A handful of other team member hours based in Greenfield will continue to be funded through the Department of Mental Health.)

While the RLC is firm in its belief that our community is about people and not spaces, our Greenfield Center has served as an important gathering point. It has been a place for us to come together to cocreate a healing environment in which we can gather strength with and from one another.

The space itself is also a visual representation of the power of our community when it comes together. Indeed, it was members of our community in collaboration with members of the Recover Project community (often one and the same) who came together to turn an old broken-down comic book shop with holes in the wall, and stained carpet, into the beautiful space that it has since become.

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Beginning on Monday, November 16 and continuing through Sunday, November 22nd, the RLC community will embark on a week-long fundraising drive called ‘Community Gives Week’. During that period, we anticipate having an online drive with special prizes available to people who donate, as well as at least one in-person event in our space on Federal Street

(stay tuned for more details on that!).

We are excited to begin rolling out our plan to save the center. This will include:

Community Gives Week (Monday, November 16 to Sunday, November 22):

Community Gives week will be a week-long fundraising drive

following a model similar to that of Valley Gives.

Public Talk with Robert Whitaker (early December):

Journalist Robert Whitaker will join us in the Greenfield area for a fundraising

event and public talk on his new book, ‘Psychiatry Under the Influence.’

Our Current Fundraising Goal is $20,000!

WE REALLY NEED YOUR HELP!

We know everyone isn’t in a position to give financially, but everyone

CAN help share about these fundraising efforts in person and/or on-line!

The Western Mass RLC’s 2015/2016 Career Initiatives Grants were awarded and officially began in September, 2015. These grants are intended to support individuals who might otherwise not have access to the needed resources to pursue independent projects or start small businesses. This year’s awards are as follows:

Andrea A (Franklin County)—Andrea is continuing her project to raise awareness of lifestyle and community spirit through photography. This project is an artistic and professional photography pursuit with an intensive concentration on photo-editing and creating prints.

Tom B (Hampden County)—Tom will be developing a do-it-yourself production of T-shirts with green-centered production values and accessibility to the homeless community. These T-shirts will be original works of art that will be made available in person and online.

Ursula C (Franklin County)—Ursula will be developing a collection of audio/radio stories that focus on people who identify as psychiatric survivors. Through personal testimony and documenting moments of joy, pain and resilience, this collection of stories aims to add to the complicated and nuanced conversations about mental health.

Debra D (Hampshire County)—Is continuing to develop an in-home private dog-training and dog-sitting services, expanding the marketing and reach of the business.

Sam H (Hampden County)—Sam will be building community through an extensive video recording and archival of our vibrant local music scene.

Charles K (Hampden County)—Charles will be working on a project called ‘Saving History and Creating the Future.’ His goal is to obtain, rehabilitate and have people occupy older buildings, so that working people can live in their own homes, and advance to a better life from a stock of neglected and abandoned structures in the area. He will then work to create and share the findings/learnings in a handbook so others can do the same.

Vanessa L (Hampden County)—Vanessa will be developing a multimedia project/photo exhibit (B1M: Return of the Matriarchs) as an act of decolonization. It encourages those who come into contact with it to question where they stand in the ongoing colonization of the earth. It is deeply influenced by a personal trip to Barbados, in which the artist/activist traces her roots to her grandmother, and all of the strong black women who have thrived despite constant attempts to suppress their deep magic. It is in honor of the ancestors and the land which sustains us all. (See page 6 of our full newsletter for additional details on an upcoming showing of Vanessa’s exhibit.)

Cindi O (Franklin County)—Cindi will work on advancing her skills as a teaching artist in order to supplement income as an independent artist, and provide quality art instruction to adults in the Greenfield community.

Theresa T (Hampden County)—Theresa will work on a project called ‘Creating Healing Images of Light and Hope.’ Through photo-journaling and formal studies, this project aims to explore, document and share personal and professional growth as an artist, photograph and social activist.

Joseph S (Berkshire County)—Joseph will be working on the expansion of the quantity and quality of an already established lawn care business. He will seek to further skills in business management and sustainability.

Join the Western Mass RLC community for this public talk with Robert Whitaker where he will discuss the content of his new book, ‘Psychiatry Under the Influence: Institutional Corruption, Social Injury, and Prescriptions for Reform.’

This book, co-authored with Lisa Cosgrove, takes an honest look at the current state of psychiatry and how it has been influenced by the pharmaceutical industry and more.

~~~

“This timely book is a careful and thoughtful analysis of institutional and political influences on the way psychiatry works today, and it provides a scholarly exploration of a problemthat has consequences for all of us. Whitaker and Cosgrove's passionate critique gives us the resources to develop solutions and to mobilize voices for an authentically liberating response to questions of mental health."

- Ian Parker, Professor of Management, University of Leicester, UK

"Psychiatry Under the Influence is a thoughtful and well-researched expose of the current framing of mental health and illness, using the lens of institutional corruption to examine the dual influence of psychiatry's financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry and professional protectionism. This is a profoundly humanistic critique of how the scientific evidence supporting newer psychiatric drug treatments could be so poor, yet have 'street cred'. This a 'must read' on the medicalization of modern life."

- Barbara Mintzes, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Sydney, Australia

RSVPs encouraged to 413.539.5941 x 301 or

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

We will also be co-sponsoring a second talk with Advocates, Inc. as follows:

Representative Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania has been promoting some version of the ‘Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis’ Act for some years. His most recent version was released in June, and although somewhat toned down, it continues to push forced treatment, decreased privacy rights, diminished access to advocates and more.

Following not far behind, Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut (along with Senator Bill Cassidy) released a Senate version in early August. This version, called the ‘Mental Health Reform Act of 2015,’ is different in spots but often identical to the House Bill.

Both threaten our movement in a multitude of ways including (but not limited to):

Expanding forced treatment in the form of Involuntary Outpatient Commitment (often referred to as ‘Assisted Outpatient Treatment’ or AOT)

Seeking to control and limit the ability of people working in peer roles

Seeking to reduce or eliminate funding for anything that is not considered ‘evidence based’ (a status that can be challenging to come by for anyone offering an alternative approach)

Seeking to exclude the voice of individuals for whom the mental health system has not worked effectively by using language that requires peer specialists and others speaking from personal experience to have been in ‘active treatment for the last two years,’ etc.

The Western Mass RLC will be losing its funding at the end of December, when the fifth cycle of the Greenfield CommunityDevelopment Block grant the RLC has shared with Recover Project comes to an end. This funding has gone primarily toward supporting our space at 74 Federal street, as well as some additional hours for team members. (Other hours are funded through our contract with the Department of Mental Health.)

While the RLC is firm in its believe that our community is about people and not spaces, our Greenfield Center has served as an important gathering point. It has been a place for us to come together to co-create a healing environment in which we can gather strength with and from one another.

The space itself is also a visual representation of the power of our community when it comes together. Indeed, it was members of our community in collaboration with members of the Recover Project community (often one and the same) who came together to turn an old broken down comic book shop with holes in the wall and stained carpet into the beautiful space that it has since become.

We are excited to begin rolling out our plan to save the center. This will include:

Community Gives Week (Monday, November 16 to Sunday, November 22): Community Gives week will be a week-long fundraising drive following a model similar to that of Valley Gives.

Public Talk with Robert Whitaker (early December): Journalist Robert Whitaker will join us in the Greenfield area for a fundraising event and public talk on his new book, ‘Psychiatry Under the Influence.’